


their hearts are gold

by orphan_account



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Percy Jackson Fusion, Attempt at Humor, Eventual Relationships, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, I tried I swear, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-09-07 21:35:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8817007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: So, here he is: Sorey Sheppard, Pig Whisperer and recently discovered demigod, riding a pegasus with the boy his age who saved his life and who also managed to look cute doing it. Did Sorey mention he has a big crush on said cute boy? Now he did.





	

**Author's Note:**

> have this in its whole unproofread glory. this is only jampacked with cuteness and stuff, just because i can. hurr durr. the whole heavy plot and mindfuckery? lets just keep it in taking back the crown, please. although saying that there's no actual plot backing up this whole fic will be a bunch of bullshit (read: mikleo's quest a year before meeting sorey).
> 
> anyway! you guys gave me the excuse i wanted when i posted that [drabble](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8782102) lmao so this is all your fault hahahaha hope you guys have fun reading this as i had (and still have) fun writing this!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which soreys normally normal day isnt normal, and he develops a crush on the guy whos intensely staring at the bees

For some reason, Sorey is absolutely sure today is going to be a weird day.

The thing is, he's _not_ sure how he's _sure_ about it. Maybe he's going to electrocute more people than normal. That's not his fault---static electricity is to blame. He has...a lot of it, or something. At least that's what his teacher in elementary told him. He doesn't exactly remember, but he's sure it has something to do with static, so whatever.

Anyway, maybe the library is closed today. That's going to be weird. Where is Sorey supposed to go during lunch break? Playing soccer with his friends just doesn't appeal to him that much. He likes to read, even when he can't read because the words like to mess up in his head. He likes to study, even if it's a walk through hell because everything is suddenly really, _really_ interesting when he's trying to focus on his book. It's hard, but they're a challenge he likes to take on. Maybe that's why his teachers like him so much, even when he's (unintentionally) interrupted class more times than he can count.

Or, maybe Sorey thinks today is going to be weird because he didn't sleep last night. Yeah, that should be it! He stayed up all night studying for his math quiz today. Even though he's had his breakfast already and is on his way to school in his mum's car, he's still groggy. He yawned maybe about ten times already since getting into the car.

"Sorey, dear, are you sure you're alright? We can always turn around and go home instead if you're not feeling well," his mum, Selene, says. Sorey blinks a few times before shaking his head in the backseat.

"It's okay!" he chirps, and he grins at his mum through the rearview mirror. "I'm just, uh---" She's not going to be happy with him if she finds out he slept at, like, 3 AM. He's a budding kid at thirteen. He still needs all the sleep he can, she'd tell him. She's right, actually, and Sorey just doesn't want to worry her. This is a onetime thing, he swears. "I played soccer with Sean yesterday!" Sorey says out loud. His mum flinches in her seat at his exclamation, and she blinks at him through the rearview mirror before smiling softly.

"Well, I see. Did you have fun?"

"I did!"

His mum laughs, and maybe this would be the part where she reaches out and ruffles his hair and puffs it up, but he's sitting in the backseat right now. Now he feels bad about lying _and_ sitting in the backseat today. "Well, good luck on your math quiz today. Don't fall asleep, okay?"

"Okay."

She drops him off in front of school, and Sorey runs to her side of the car to give her a goodbye kiss, because darn it, he has to! If he didn't, he'll feel guilty about lying the whole day. Maybe he thinks today is going to be weird because he kissed mum in front of the school. Will the other kids make fun of him for it? He's already weird to them in the first place.

His mum only chuckles and affectionately runs her hand through his hair. "You didn't comb your hair again today."

"I did!" Sorey says as he steps away from the car, defensively putting his hands over his head. No one's given them another glance yet, so maybe things will be cool. "I have no control over my hair, mum. You know that!"

"I can only imagine how bad it will still be when you're already sixteen," his mum teases, and Sorey pouts. His mother laughs again. "Run along now. Tell Sean hi for me."

"Okay." He runs straight to the school's front doors, and he spins to give his mum a wave. "Bye mum!"

Sorey watches the car leave the school, only moving when it's finally out of sight. He puts his hands on his hips and huffs before heading into the building. Friday, here he comes!

\--

The day goes by uneventfully and not as Sorey had first thought. He tells Sean hi that morning, and Sean says hi back before inviting him yet again to play soccer with them at lunch. Sorey has to make sure that the library isn't closed before politely declining Sean's invitation yet again. It's weird how Sean always invites him to play soccer. He played with Sean's team once, and they won. It's kind of impossible that Sean keeps asking him because of that one time win. Sorey is sure that one was a fluke. The math quiz is hell, but it goes better than expected, so staying up until 3 AM was worth it. The library is as quiet as ever. Sorey is twenty pages into the book he took from the history section before getting distracted with a rat he hears squeaking at one corner of the library for ten minutes. It's a new record. He knocks fingers with his lab partner while swapping beakers during science class and gets electrocuted. It doesn't happen again after that.

The day is just as normal as ever that Sorey has to wonder why he thought what he thought that morning. He's on his way to his last class for the day, and truth be told, he's excited. History is his favourite subject, and Mr. Mayvin knows exactly how to keep his attention for the whole duration of the class. He seems to completely understand Sorey's situation, which means he knows exactly what to do so Sorey doesn't end up being distracted by, let's say, a bee bumping against the window. There's beehive on a tree a few yards from the window, usually faintly buzzing with bees. Which Sorey shouldn't even notice; he sits far from the windows.

With a bounce, he stops in front of his last class for the day, and he opens the door.

He quickly realises that since the day isn't over yet, there's still a chance that it may get weird. Maybe he's overthinking it, but, well.

The first person he notices is a kid his age (obviously) that's sitting by the window where Leia is supposed to sit, and Sorey notices him first before noticing anyone else because of---get this!---his _hair_. It's frosty blue and makes him stick out like a sore thumb, because no one in class has that kind of silvery hair unless they're Mr. Mayvin. He looks bored, but he's intensely watching the beehive, like he's waiting for the bees to come out and carry him away. Maybe if Sorey is anyone else, he'll understand why the boy wants to leave. No one pays him any attention, simply because everyone is too busy talking with their friends. Some of Sorey's classmates greet him when he enters the classroom, and while he returns the greetings, his eyes are still focused on the boy. It's weird that everyone ignores him; it's not as if everyone ignores newcomers, especially when they sit in a chair that's already claimed. Then again, it's also weird someone new pops up in the middle of the last quarter.

Sorey grabs one of his classmates.

"Wh---Sorey! What the hell, man?" Lester says, frowning at him, and Sorey frowns back at him. Lester has been his classmate and somewhat-a-friend since last year. He's slightly taller than Sorey, with curly dark hair and green eyes, like him. He has pimple scars on the right side of his face. The first signs of the largely rumoured curse called _puberty_. Lester's frown turns to a look of confusion. "What?"

"Who's he?" Sorey tries not to point at the boy, because that's rude, so Sorey looks hard at him instead. Lester follows his gaze, and he blinks.

"Oh, uh." Lester frowns again, as if struggling to remember, and okay, that's weird. "Oh, right," he finally says. "Um, Mik...Mik-something. Heck if I know."

"You don't know?"

" _You_ don't know?"

Okay, Lester has a point. "He's sitting in Leia's chair. Someone should have told him, right?"

"Didn't even notice him until you did." Lester shrugs. "He's, like, a late enrolee or something. He's a weird guy. I mean, look at that hair! And I know what you're thinking! Forget it."

Sorey blinks. "What am I thinking?" he challenges Lester, and his classmate makes a face.

"Duh! Talk to him, like you always do with everyone and everything you come across. Even pigs! Remember field trip last year, _Pig Whisperer?"_

Sorey actually thinks it's a cool nickname, but that's not really what they're talking about right now. He decides to defend the pigs anyway. "What? Pigs are nice. And that's what you do when you meet someone for the first time, Lester."

"Whatever, dude," Lester says. "I'm telling you. We tried talking to him, but he's kinda rude. Ignores everyone. Literally." Oh, so Sorey's classmates aren't as rude as he first thought. Maybe he should give them more credit. "It's like talking to a wall. Pigs are a better choice than him."

Sorey raises an eyebrow at that, and he looks again at the boy, uh, Mik. He's still staring at the beehive.

He's quiet for a moment, and then, "do you think he likes bees?"

Lester makes this look that seems to say _of course you'd ask that_. "I totally don't care," he says. "Don't talk to him, dude." Then he saunters off to leave the classroom, which is what he's probably planning to do before Sorey grabbed him.

He watches Lester leave, and he looks at the clock hanging above the whiteboard. There's still a few minutes before Mr. Mayvin comes in and starts the class. Lester isn't really going to skip class, then, and Sorey can still tell Mik not to sit by the window and help him find his own seat instead.

After dropping his bag on his seat, he makes his way to Mik, thinking of the perfect ice breaker, and he stops right in front of Mik. Sorey is already expecting Mik to completely ignore him and continue watching the bees, but to his surprise, Mik actually turns to look at him, and whatever it is he's going to tell Mik---something about bees, probably---completely shrivels up and dies in his head.

Mik's eyes are really, really pretty.

They're blue, that much Sorey can tell, but there's this rich hue in his irises that Sorey has having a hard time telling what colour it is exactly. Lavender, amethyst? Wow, _amethyst;_ Sorey feels fancy thinking that, but it seems to be the right term to use to describe the rich colour in Mik's eyes. The sun is still high up in the sky, but the rolling dark clouds above tone down the intensity of the sunlight, and the soft light in turn makes Mik's eyes look more like a dulled gemstone instead. They're still so pretty, though.

Sorey gapes at him, hears the faint chatter of his classmates around them. He hears Lester return to the classroom and groan, most likely at him for not heeding Lester's advice, and then Mik frowns at him.

"...What?"

Oh, uh. Sorey has to say something fast, or this is going to be super awkward. He doesn't want that.

What is he going to say about the bees? Oh, right---their wings! And how they're not supposed to carry a bee's fat body. Maybe Mik knows about Bee Movie.

"Hi!" Sorey says, maybe a bit louder than he intends, "I think your eyes are pretty!"

...That is _not_ about _bees_.

Everything seems to go in slow-mo as Mik's eyes widen at Sorey's words, his lips parting a little in surprise. Sorey's eyes also widen at his own words, and he's not really sure if he's horrified or pleased at what he just said, because he's watching Mik turn into this mad shade of red. That's how Sorey realises that Mik is also really pale.

The class quiets down significantly, everyone watching them, and Mik is looking up at him and gaping like a fish. Sorey thinks he hears Lester screaming in the background, something like _you're an idiot!_ But he can't really tell anymore.

Sorey stammers something really intelligent, like _um_ and _uh_ , then he hears the door open and Mr. Mayvin comes in with a loud greeting.

Somehow, that breaks the whole slow-mo thing, and everything seems to return to normal as everyone's attention turns to their teacher. Sorey takes this chance to escape, too, and he quickly gets away from Mik and practically jumps into his seat, eyes completely glued to their teacher. He watches Mr. Mayvin regard the whole class, probably silently checking the attendance, and Mr. Mayvin looks at Mik. He frowns a little, looks at Sorey then back at Mik, and Sorey nervously thinks that he probably heard Sorey yelling about Mik's eyes. Oh, no, that's _embarrassing_. That's his favourite teacher!

For the first time in the entire school year, Sorey spends history class completely distracted. He keeps worrying about what kind of nickname his classmates will come up with this time. He really likes the Pig Whisperer nickname, honestly.

But more importantly, he can't shake off the uneasy feeling of being watched, and he's sure that's Mik staring holes into him. It's the first time that he feels awfully uncomfortable in his seat.

\--

Instead of approaching Mik and apologising like a normal, healthily functioning kid would do, Sorey instead makes a beeline for the door when class ends. He runs straight to the school's exit, deciding that he'll just go to school early tomorrow to do his locker duties, and he busts out of the doors and---

Sorey yelps and immediately returns inside, and he shakes the water off his hair. The rain poured immediately when he stepped outside.

He steps aside and lets his schoolmates shuffle out with their umbrellas out. Some already have their guardians or buses waiting for them outside, and Sorey watches them with absolute misery.

His mum already informed him the day before that she won't be able to pick him up from school today, so he has to go home by himself. She firmly told him he can't go alone, though, so he has to leave with some of his friends. The problem(s) now: he doesn't have any friends who lives in the same neighbourhood, which he forgot to tell his mum, and he didn't know it's going to rain today, which means he doesn't have an umbrella. This completely sucks, but at least he's not the only one without an umbrella; some of the students loitering the halls are glancing outside worriedly, and it makes Sorey feel a little better about himself.

He could wait the rain out, probably, and with that, he decides to return to his classroom and stay there until the rain lets up. He stops by his locker to pick up the stuff he needs for his homework, then he heads back to his classroom.

Sorey finds the door to his classroom ajar, and a quick look at the opening tells him that---oh, uh. It's Mik talking to Mr. Mayvin. Is he telling Mr. Mayvin about how embarrassing Sorey is?

Against his better judgement, Sorey leans in to listen, and immediately, he realises has _no idea_ what they're talking about.

"---think you're going to come here. Did you run into trouble?" Mr. Mayvin says. He's sitting in the teacher's desk, regarding Mik with a small smile, as if he's someone close to him. Well, Mr. Mayvin is close to his students, but he regards Mik a bit differently. Mik, on the other hand, stands in front of the teacher's desk, fiddling with a fancy blue bracelet on his left wrist. It's studded with blue stones of varying shades, and Sorey has to wonder if Mik comes from a wealthy family.

Mik shrugs. "I always do. Lunarre always pops up whenever I go out." He looks down at his bracelet, still fiddling with it, and Sorey realises he's frowning. "I...may have caused a traffic jam going here."

Traffic jam? Lunarre? Is that Lunarre person paparazzi? Maybe Mik is a big deal and that's why he's kind of a snob? Mr. Mayvin just looks amused, though, like it's such a Mik thing to happen, and he nods. "I see. Is he not over your little strife during your quest last year?"

Mik pouts. It's...really cute. "I guess he's not, but I'm sure he just wants to eat me. He said I smell like baked oysters."

Sorey chokes, and he slaps a hand over his mouth to stop making noises. That...doesn't make any sense! Are they speaking in codes? Mik can't be serious about getting eaten, is he? And Sorey is sure he doesn't smell like baked oystesr. Sorey loves that! He looks so serious, though, and while Mr. Mayvin is smiling at him, Sorey can tell he's also taking Mik's words seriously.

Mr. Mayvin sighs. "Well, we can't really do anything about your smell." Mik isn't smelly! "You didn't bring him back to Tartarus?"

Tartarus...Sorey knows about that, or rather, him. He's the...the god from the myths. Is this another code between Mik and Mr. Mayvin? Mik huffs. "No. He got away when I injured him enough." What? "I hate him for it."

This doesn't make any sense. This is, well, _weird_. Crap! His gut was right about today being weird. Maybe it's time to step back and leave and go home, despite the rain. Call it a day and go to sleep! Maybe he's just dreaming.

Except, Sorey doesn't do so (he hates himself for it), because Mr. Mayvin and Mik's next exchange makes him stop and his blood run cold.

"Um, anyway, Gramps sent me here to see how you're faring," Mik said. "You haven't sent an Iris message for the past few days. He's worried something went wrong here." He pauses, and he frowns again. "Is the one you're looking after the boy with green eyes and brown hair? I think...his name is Sorey."

What?

"Everything is fine, Mikleo," Mr. Mayvin says, and it takes Sorey a moment to realise that's Mik's real name and not just, well, _Mik_. Mikleo... "In fact, things are surprisingly peaceful here. You're right, it's Sorey I'm looking after. He's a good kid. He hasn't attracted any trouble yet. If everything goes well, the school year will end without any scene, and we can invite him to camp instead of, you know, the usual." Mr. Mayvin laughs. "It's a good break from all the explosions and death."

Mikleo shrugs. "He's weird."

It's the last thing Sorey hears from their conversation, because he takes a wary step away from the door, and another, then he spins around and sprints away from there as fast as he can. He sprints out of the school, ignoring the fact that it's still raining heavily, and he darts down the streets. Can he ask his mum to skip school tomorrow and forever? There are people who want to kidnap him! And that's not cool! Surely his mum will get it, right?

Sorey ignores the angry pouring of the rain against his face, even the wild winds that seem to get more and more violent the longer he stays out, and he's pretty sure his bag and books are wet now, and this is a bad idea, and---

"Sorey? Dude! What the heck?"

Sorey stops at the familiar voice, the wind whipping his hair around violently, and he turns around and sees Lester standing behind him, in a raincoat and holding a giant umbrella. Despite the harsh winds, his umbrella still hasn't turned upside down. What an umbrella.

"Lester!" Sorey screams, and he immediately runs to his somewhat-a-friend and seeks shelter under his umbrella. Sorey looks at him with wide eyes. "You're right! Mikleo is weird, and so is Mr. Mayvin! They're going to kidnap me!"

"What?" Lester looks confused, then surprised. "Mikleo is his name?"

"Does it matter? Can you come with me and accompany me home?" Sorey claps his hands together and lowers his head. "Please! If you say yes my life is yours to keep."

Lester blinks, and he looks around him, as if expecting someone to show up. When nothing of the sort happened, he returns his gaze to Sorey. It's when Sorey realises he actually has no idea where he'd run to. They're standing in an empty parking lot, behind buildings and far from the streets. Sorey doesn't know how he ended up here. The rain and the winds managed to lead him somewhere he doesn't know, or...or at least that's what he thinks. Why?

Lester's chapped lips curl into a wide smile. "Sure, dude. You swear on the river Styx that?"

Sorey blinks. River Styx? That’s the famous river from the myths. He _knows_ his myths; his mother loves to tell him all about them, like she knew every character in her stories personally. It’s how he grew so fond of the Shepherd. "Uh, I don't think I like the idea that you're making me swear on the river Styx."

Lester laughs, and Sorey realises he doesn't like it. "Do you believe in the myths?"

"The Shepherd's myth is as believable as it can get."

Lester rolls his eyes. He's not smiling anymore. "Everyone knows your opinion about the Shepherd. I'm talking about the _Greek_ myths, bro. You sound like you know a whole lot about it, if you know about the river Styx." Even though they're already under the same umbrella, Lester takes a step towards Sorey.

"Uh," Sorey takes a step back, and Lester frowns. Lester is being weird, and he's starting to dislike how he keeps using the word to describe a whole lot of things today. "Actually, never mind about accompanying me home. I think I can make it home by myself." Sorey practically leaps away from Lester's umbrella and feels the rain pouring against his skin again. "See you at school!"

He only manages to run a few metres away from Lester when he hears the other loudly say, "oh, no, you won't."

The wind suddenly picks up, blowing much harder than before that it feels as if it's trying to cut his skin, trying to _stop_ him from getting away from Lester, and this isn't...something's _wrong_.

As soon as Sorey thinks that, he loses his balance, as if something invisible tripped him, and then the wind violently blows him back. He lands on his back---and bag---with a painful grunt, and he turns to his side, trying to sit up. His back is throbbing painfully. Sorey looks up, blinking the rainwater out of his eyes. That doesn't really work, so he wipes his face instead, looking at where Lester stands. He doesn't find a curly haired kid in a raincoat standing in front of him, though.

In place of that kid he knows is a human-shaped grey smoke, as tall as Lester and holding the same umbrella Lester had been holding. The smoke-dude seems to have eyes that flickered like lightning and has a wide, creepy smile that resembles---you guessed it---Lester's.

In short, this is _probably_ Lester.

"Wh---" Sorey starts, and a stray paper flies and slaps against his face. He takes it off, and he finds with horror that it's his math test paper from this morning, the red _72_ on top of his paper already blotting out. His bag had opened just from the sheer force of the winds, and his stuff are everywhere. This is _horrifying_.

Who-might-be-Lester laughs, and it sounds similarly like lightning smashing glass. It hurts Sorey's ears. "I've taken my time," Lester says. "I could've killed you long ago, but it was fun toying you around. It was a big help that the useless _satyr_ assigned to look after you is useless." He snorts, but Sorey thinks it might have been thunder instead. "I could've killed both of you already, dude."

Sorey decides he doesn't like being called dude, or man, or bro by this guy. He struggles to push himself off the ground.

Maybe Lester finds it fun or something, but he continues to ramble on as he watches Sorey slowly stand up against the harsh winds. "Anyway," he continues, "I can't play around with you anymore, which sucks. That stupid demigod decided he just has to butt in on like, the third month. So now I have to kill you, and then I'll kill him. Everyone's going to be so jealous of me!"

Sorey's eyes widen at Lester's words. He's still so confused, and satyr and demigod and Lester being an angry storm cloud don't make sense to him, but he decides to summarise the whole thing with: Lester is a big fat liar about Pig Whisperer, probably, Mik is actually Mikleo, and he's going to die.

Lester closes his umbrella and swings it once towards Sorey, and while it's bizarre that Lester can hold that thing with his smoky, vaporous hands, Sorey doesn't really have time to wonder about it. As soon as Lester swings it and points the thing at him, lightning crackles from the umbrella's tip and shoots straight towards him.

Sorey jumps to the side, rolls back to his feet, and narrowly avoids another lightning that could've barbecued him. He doesn't think about what he's doing; he just _does_ them. And honestly, it would be nice if his reflexes managed to help him cartwheel the heck out of here. The wind picks up speed again, and Sorey braces himself to be blown away again, and true enough, the wind blows him---but not down; the wind blows him _up_.

Lester's grinning widely at him from the ground, and Lester points his umbrella at him again. Lightning crackles at the tip, and it hurls straight at him.

_Bang!_

Sorey lands on his back again, clearly in a daze, and despite the rain, he's practically smoking. The front of his shirt has been charred off, and his chest is dark with soot. He raises his hands, groggily blinking against the rain. His fingertips are as dark as coal. So that's what it looks like to be struck with lightning.

Lester isn't happy about it, probably because Sorey isn't dead. "How the---that's not possible!" he cries. "That should've killed you!" He points his umbrella at Sorey again, and lightning begins to crackle again at the tip. Sorey tries to move and crawl away, but even if the lightning strike didn't kill him, it sure managed to incapacitate him. His arms feel like jelly. He's pretty sure he's not going to be lucky the second time. "Say goodbye, puny demigod!" Lester says as the crackling lightning grows bigger and bigger on his umbrella. Sorey played enough video games to know he's charging his attack, and that's going to hurt. A lot.

"I'm not puny," Sorey manages to croak out, completely ignoring the demigod part, and he supposes they're not the worst last words anyone can ever say.

There's a loud, whizzing sound from above, and then Lester explodes. Well, Sorey actually can't tell if it's Lester that exploded or the ground or something else entirely, but a giant wave of water erupts out of nowhere and engulfs Lester, and then there's an explosion, accompanied with thunder and crackling electricity.

Sorey blinks.

He hears flapping above him, the wind gently flowing around him, a stark contrast from Lester's violent winds, and looking up and his jaw dropping, Sorey finds himself staring at a winged horse hovering a few metres above him, its wings graciously flapping as it slowly lowers itself beside Sorey. When it's on a safe enough distance from the ground, someone jumps from the winged horse, his knees bending as he lands. He straightens himself and looks at Sorey.

With a worried expression, Mikleo runs to him and kneels beside him, inspecting the damages on his body. Mikleo winces.

"This looks painful," he says. "Is it painful? Can you stand?"

Well, this is definitely far different from when Mikleo first frowned at him. "It doesn't hurt, but my feet and arms feel like they became one with Jell-o," Sorey says, and Mikleo cracks a small smile at that. "And I feel dazed," he immediately adds. He can't tell if it's because of Mikleo's smile or because he almost died. Mikleo solemnly nods.

"I know the feeling," he says with sympathy. "Come on, let's get you up. Mayvin's going to help us."

"No!" Sorey didn't scream that.

Lightning erupts from the giant smoke that the explosion created, heading straight for Mikleo, but Sorey manages to pull him down to himself, and the lightning strikes the ground a few paces away from them. Mikleo pushes himself off Sorey and looks at him with his intense, amethyst eyes. It's still raining, and Mikleo's silvery blue hair are flat and wet, clinging to his face. Water drips down his long, frosty eyelashes. Sorey gulps.

"Stay down," Mikleo says and looks at his whinnying winged horse, which, now Sorey has calmed down, he identifies as a pegasus from the Greek myths Lester was babbling about earlier.

Holy _crap_. They're real? Is this real?

"Alicia, look after him for me," Mikleo tells his pegasus as he stands up, and Sorey tries to follow suit, but Alicia grabs onto his collar with her teeth and drags him away from Mikleo.

"Wha---wait! Are we just leaving him?" Sorey demands as Alicia spreads her wings again, ready to take flight. "What if he needs our help?"

Alicia stops at this, and with a begrudging whinny, she drops Sorey again and anxiously trots protectively around him as they both watch Mikleo stand in front of the slowly receding smoke, yelling insults at it.

"Hey, factory smoke!" Mikleo is saying. "Do something about your aim! It's crap!"

Lester's growl sounds more like thunder than an actual growl. "So you finally intervene, son of Poseidon?" Son of--- _what?_ "Fine! Change of plans: I will kill you _first_. Everyone will worship me for killing Typhon’s slaughterer!"

The wind picks up at an alarming speed again, and Mikleo holds out his left hand. The fancy blue bracelet wrapped around his wrist glows white, and then it untangles itself from his wrist, elongating, and changing shape until it vaguely takes the form of a bow. When Mikleo closes his fingers around it, the white light disperses, and Sorey sees that the fancy blue bracelet is now a fancy blue bow. The body is coloured white that slowly fades into blue towards the ends, and as the ends fan out into what look like blue fins, gold and silver line the edges and parts of the fins. The string glows neon blue.

Sorey gapes. It's too late to say this, but things are getting weirder and weirder than what his imagination can possibly come up with. It makes Sorey realise he's _definitely_ not dreaming this.

This is _really_ happening.

Mikleo draws the string of his bow, and immediately the rain around him contorts and bends towards the bow, shaping itself into a flaming white arrow, if water is fire, anyway. Lester laughs.

"You hope to seize me with water?" Thunder rumbles ahead as the rain continues to pour down on them, as if Lester's making a point. "Do you know what I am, son of Poseidon?"

 _"Anemoi thuella,"_ Mikleo grumbles, like he's being forced to recite in front of a whole class, "a storm spirit, blah, blah, blah; you caused this bad weather. Stop calling me that. I'll pulverise you, like I did with Typhon. Say hi to him in Tartarus for me."

Lester snarls angrily at him, and with both hands, Lester raises his umbrella like he would a bazooka, and a giant ball of lightning releases from the umbrella's tip as Mikleo releases the arrow.

The arrow hurls straight towards the ball of lightning, but it doesn't hit it. Instead, the arrow splits into multiple torrents like a blooming flower, two or three of them meeting the ball of lightning. They explode on impact, the light blinding, with the force enough to break the ground and shatter windows on the buildings, and Alicia protectively encloses her large wings around Sorey.

When the explosion ends, Sorey blinks his vision back, trying hard to focus his eyes on where Mikleo had been standing. With horror, Sorey realises Mikleo is nowhere to be found. Or maybe he can't just see Mikleo. The explosion was so big that the entire parking lot is covered in smoke. Sorey can't see a thing.

"Mikleo?"

Silence.

Oh, no. "Mikleo!"

Alicia may have sensed Sorey's growing panic, because she bends her head down and nudges Sorey so hard he falls to the side, and he's already _sitting_.

With shaky legs, Sorey forces himself to stand. Alicia helps him do so, and he realises that the rain has stopped. Looking up and past the thick cloud of smoke around him, Sorey sees the sun peeking through the slowly receding dark clouds. That means only one thing, right? Mikleo managed to win over Lester.

But _Mikleo_. Where is---

"Sorey?"

Sorey whips his head down and towards the voice, and he sees a figure slowly showing itself from the thick smoke. Mikleo emerges from the smoke, his bow back as a fancy blue bracelet around his left wrist and holding a---a _dagger_. Made of bronze. He's smoking and covered in soot and gold glitter, and so does his bronze dagger. On his right hand is the umbrella Lester was holding. Probably his trophy for winning. That's what happens after fights in the ancient times, right?

Mikleo stops, stares at Sorey and Alicia, and sighs. Then he collapses.

Oh, crap. "Mikleo!"

He and Alicia are immediately by his side, and he's tugging Mikleo back to his feet. Mikleo sighs again, and Sorey's just glad he's not dead. "I don't want to do that again," he mutters as Sorey slings his arm over his shoulders. "It makes me tired."

"Yeah, well," Sorey says as he drags Mikleo towards Alicia. "I don't want to almost die again."

Mikleo's lips tugs weakly into a smile. "That's impossible."

"...Why?"

"Because," Mikleo says as Sorey helps him get on his pegasus. "You're a demigod. Almost dying is in the job description."

"Really?"

"Really."

Mikleo pulls something out of his pocket, a small bottle of something, and he drinks from it. Sorey watches in awe as the small cuts and bruises peppering Mikleo's pale arms and face disappear, and then he looks good as new again, maybe except for his clothes. He looks at Sorey.

Despite the black soot staining his clothes and his messy, glitter-glamoured hair, sitting on a mighty stead like a pegasus and the sun shining behind him like a spotlight, Mikleo looks... _otherworldly_. Can one describe a person as such? It feels way over the top, but that's what Mikleo is, anyway: way over the top, and most definitely out of Sorey's league. He smiles softly at Sorey and offers his hand to him, both the dagger and the umbrella miraculously gone.

"Come on," Mikleo says, and _gosh_ , his hand looks soft despite wielding actual freaking _weapons_. "I'll bring you somewhere safe." He looks at Sorey's charred shirt. "We'll get you new clothes, too."

Sorey takes Mikleo's hand (note to himself: it's not soft like he first thought; it's calloused and rough, but he definitely doesn't mind holding it), and Mikleo pulls him up onto Alicia.

"Hold on," Mikleo says, and Sorey tries not to spontaneously combust when he wraps his arms around Mikleo's waist, and not even the feel of the wind gently whizzing past him as they soar through the skies can rival Mikleo's heat and scent (he smells like rain and warm comforters laid out in front of a fireplace, not baked oysters).

So, here he is: Sorey Sheppard, Pig Whisperer and recently discovered demigod, riding a pegasus with the boy his age who saved his life and who also managed to look cute doing it. Did Sorey mention he has a big crush on said cute boy? Now he did.

He didn't think the day literally after his thirteenth birthday will end up like this. When Sorey thought that morning that today will be weird, he never thought that it would escalate to _this_ , but apparently that's what happens when you're a demigod.

\--

Sorey is a naturally curious guy, so of course when he finally gets over being high up in the skies and stops being flustered over holding onto Mikleo's waist and the adrenaline from almost being killed wears off, he shoots Mikleo a heck ton of questions, and he pauses from time to time to marvel over flying on the same height as planes. It's cold, _really_ cold, but Sorey can endure it. He can endure it, especially when Mikleo acts like it's _no big deal_.

Mikleo is probably a saint; he has so much patience with Sorey's questions. Where did Mayvin go? _No idea, we didn't meet him since we flew straight out of Ladylake._ Sorey's dad is a god? _Definitely, yes._ So Poseidon is Mikleo's dad? _Yes, he's my dad._ Can Mikleo do the cool stuff Aquaman can? _Ask that again and I will push you off Alicia._ ...Okay, so what the _heck_ is up with Mikleo's bracelet? _It's sort of a prize for returning from my quest alive_. Quest, as in, like the quest Jason and the Argonauts had taken to find the Golden Fleece, or maybe even with Perseus and the Pegasus? _Yes, actually._ So they're real and not just legends or bedtime stories? _Yes, all real._

"What about the Shepherd?" Sorey is practically bouncing on Alicia at this point. The pegasus doesn't enjoy it. "Is the tale of the Shepherd real?"

Mikleo takes a second too long to answer, and in the end, he doesn't answer at all. "We're here," he says instead.

Alicia swoops down and into the clouds, and Sorey's eyes widen as the clouds part to reveal a beautiful landscape below them.

It's easy to tell they're on top of a mountain, with the lush trees all around and clouds rolling through the plains. In the middle of these trees is a wide clearing, with a lake (a lake!) and different structures of varying designs and themes. The most notable are the cabins arranged to make the omega symbol, the hearth crackling with fire in the middle, and a manor a few ways south of the cabins. South of it all are fields peppered with red and faint pink---strawberries, Sorey realises after a moment, and the fields occupy almost a third of the wide clearing. The fields are situated near a giant gate, where a giant tree stands beside it, with something gold and glittering hanging on it, and Sorey blinks.

"Is that---Is that the _Golden Fleece?"_

"Bingo."

As they slowly descend towards the giant gate, Sorey identifies the structures surrounding the cabins: an amphitheatre, a dining pavilion, a volleyball court, two small sheds that seem out of place, and---is that climbing wall on fire?

Sorey breathes out a _whoa_ in awe, and Mikleo chuckles. Sorey can already see people gathering by the gate to watch them go down. They're of varying ages---ranging from Sorey and Mikleo's age to as old as eighteen or so. Most, if not all, wear an orange t-shirt.

They finally reach land, and Mikleo jumps down first, offering his hand to Sorey yet again.

"Sorey," Mikleo says as Sorey takes his hand and jumps off Alicia. "This is Elysia Strawberry Service, but it's lovingly known as something else." He gestures towards the gathering people at the gate with a smile.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."


End file.
